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Character Quotes

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Character Quotes

“People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that having read one or two of his books they feel on peculiarly intimate terms with him; or it may be that they dramatize themselves and, seeing themselves as it were as characters in a novel, are ready to be as open with him as they imagine the characters of his invention are.”

PeopleKnowsFeelsWritingMayTwoBookCharacterTermNovelImagineSeeingReadyInventionIntimate
Author:W. Somerset Maugham
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“So long as a novelist works selfishly for the pleasure of creating character and situation corresponding to his own illusions, ideals and intuitions, he will always produce something worth while and natural. Directly he takes himself too seriously and begins for the alleged benefit of humanity an elaborate dissection of complexes, he evolves a book that is more ridiculous and tiresome than the most conventional cold cream girl novel of yesterday.”

LongBookCharacterHumanityGirlNaturalPleasureSituationNovelProduceColdBenefitsCreatingIllusionIdealsComplexesIntuitionRidiculousYesterdayEvolveNovelistsConventionalCreamCorrespondingTiresomeDissectionCreating Characters
Book:Willa Cather in person: interviews, speeches, and letters
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“The condition of women affords in all countries the best criterion by which to judge the character of men.”

MenCountryCharacterConditionsJudgingCriteriaCharacter Of A Man
Book:Views of society and manners in America: in a series of letters from that country to a friend in England, during the years 1818, 1819, and 1820
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“Heroism is no extempore work of transient impulse--a rocket rushing fretfully up to disturb the darkness by which, after a moment's insulting radiance, it is ruthlessly swallowed up,--but a steady fire, which darts forth tongues of flame. It is no sparkling epigram of action, but a luminous epic of character.”

MomentsCharacterActionDarknessFireTongueImpulseFlamesSteadyHeroismEpicRocketsInsultingRushingLuminousTransientRadianceEpigramsSparklingDarts
Author:Edwin Percy Whipple
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“The great characteristic of men of active genius is a sublime self-confidence, springing not from self-conceit, but from an intense identification of the man with his object, which lifts him altogether above the fear of danger and death, which gives to his enterprise a character of insanity to the common eye, and which communicates an almost superhuman audacity to his will.”

MenGivingSelfCharacterEyeCommonDangerObjectsHe ManGeniusCommunicateActiveSelf ConfidenceIntenseLiftsInsanityCharacteristicsEnterpriseSublimeConceitIdentificationAudacitySuperhumanGreat Character
Book:Literature and life, lects
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“Living authors, therefore, are usually, bad companions. If they have not gained character, they seek to do so by methods often ridiculous, always disgusting; and if they have established a character, they are silent for fear of losing by their tongue what they have acquired by their pen--for many authors converse much more foolishly than Goldsmith, who have never written half so well.”

IfsWellsCharacterHalfWrittenLosingMethodSilentTongueRidiculousCompanionPensDisgustingConversesAuthorship
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“Very great personages are not likely to form very just estimates either of others or of themselves; their knowledge of themselves is obscured by the flattery of others; their knowledge of others is equally clouded by circumstances peculiar to themselves. For in the presence of the great, the modest are sure to suffer from too much diffidence, and the confident from too much display.”

CharacterFormSufferingToo MuchCircumstancesPeculiarDisplayModestFlatteryCloudedGreat PersonDiffidence
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“Trifles lighter than straws are levers in the building up of character.”

CharacterBuildingTriflesLightersStrawsBuilding UpLevers
Book:Gems from Tupper: Consisting of Extracts from the Following Works: Proverbial Philosophy; Thousand Lines; Twins; Hactenus; An Authr's Mind; Geraldine, and Other Poems; Heart; Crock of Gold; and Probabilities, an Aid to Faith
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“Grace in women has more effect than beauty. We sometimes see a certain fine self-possession, an habitual voluptuousness of character, which reposes on its own sensations and derives pleasure from all around it, that is more irresistible than any other attraction. There is an air of languid enjoyment in such persons, "in their eyes, in their arms, and their hands, and their face," which robs us of ourselves, and draws us by a secret sympathy towards them.”

PersonsSelfSometimesCharacterHandsEyeFacesCertainPleasureSecretGraceAirEffectsArmsFineDrawsPossessionAttractionEnjoymentSensationsIrresistibleReposeHabitual
Book:Sketches and Essays: And Winterslow (essays Written There).
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“The press, important as is its office, is but the servant of the human intellect, and its ministry is for good or for evil, according to the character of those who direct it. The press is a mill which grinds all that is put into its hopper. Fill the hopper with poisoned grain, and it will grind it to meal, but there is death in the bread.”

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Author:William C. Bryant
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“That politeness which we put on, in order to keep the assuming and the presumptuous at a proper distance will generally succeed. But it sometimes happens that these obtrusive characters are on such excellent terms with themselves that they put down this very politeness to the score of their own great merits and high pretensions, meeting the coldness of our reserve with a ridiculous condescension of familiarity, in order to set us at ease with ourselves.”

SometimesCharacterHappensOrderTermSucceedDistanceAssumingMeetingsRidiculousExcellentEaseMeritScoreReservesFamiliarityPolitenessPretensionColdnessCondescensionPresumptuous
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“Every unfulfilled aspiration of humanity in the past; all partial representation of perfect character; all sacrifices, nay, even those of idolatry, point to the fulfillment of what want, the answer to every longing--the type of perfect humanity, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

WantCharacterPastHumanityJesusChristAnswersPerfectLordSacrificeTypeJesus ChristLongingFulfillmentAspirationRepresentationIdolatryLord Jesus Christ
Book:Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton
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